Each year Visual Communication Design students are awarded for excellence.

ADDY Awards, American Advertising Awards
The American Advertising Awards, formerly the ADDYs, is the advertising industry's largest and most representative competition, attracting over 40,000 entries every year in local AAF Club (Ad Club) competitions. The completion is for both Professionals and Students. The students are awarded in their own category.

AIGA A_ Judges Choice Awards
2016, Triana Thompson, This End Up: Public Type Delivered, Publication Design. Professor: Patrick Dooley. “I’ve always felt the most impressive design is that which draws interest to the uninteresting. I chose Public Type as best in show because it made me stop and pay attention. It felt like there was a distinct effort made to approach the project with the design style that it called for rather than forcing a preferred style on it. This is an important design approach to me: Letting the content lead the design, not the other way around.” AIGA A 11 Judge: Scott Hill - Founder of MAST

2016, Triana Thompson, Awkword: Typography for the Socially Inept, Publication Design Professor: Andrea Herstowski. “Awkword was well written and well designed. The features were memorable, but even more memorable was the attention to detail. Page numbers, captioning, folios, body copy, headlines ... it was all closely considered and appropriately dispatched, which is rare for a student project. This is professional work.” AIGA A11 Judge: Jennifer Kinon, Founder of Champions for Design

2014, Claire Pedersen (creative lead), Sydney Goldstein, Lexi Griffith, Katie Whiteman, Lori Novak, Patrick Blanchard. KU Design Week. Faculty Advisor Andrea Herstowski “KU's Design Week materials are highly impressive for student work. The team started simply and from there judiciously layered on a remarkable amount of detail and whimsey. What I found most refreshing was the successful mix of restraint and exploration, something not often seen in student work. The result is fresh, energetic and flexible brand system.” – Katherine Walker, Google Brand Studio, San Francisco CA

2014, Alex Anderson. Astro Dogs, Branding and Packaging. Professor Tad Carpenter. AIGA A10 Juror's Choice. "What I like about this project is the way the identity is rolled out across the implementation. The designer thought ahead to patterned elements, multiple configuration of the mark and logotype, and secondary elements to create a cohesive suite of pieces that are used in different configurations. And yet it all feels like one brand image. This is something that a lot of identity work falls short on, providing elements that are a bit clumsy in practice and hare to implement. An impressive adaptable approach, especially for student work.” – Riley Cran, Lost Type, Vancouver BC

2014, Keene Niemack, Alex Anderson, Sally Carmichael, and Drue Davis (creative lead)Evoke. Publication Design. Professor Patrick Dooley. “The Transition from "practicing at design and "mastering the principles of design" is an awesome thing to see in student's work, and this piece really exemplified a student that had the principles of design firmly in their grasp and were now beginning to apply time to a subject matter with a point of view. This piece definitely has a personality and mood. There is a tone set from the cover that is carried throughout while still offering visual interest along the way. Stylistically I appreciate the clean design, the conscious use of photography in scale and contrast of color versus black and white, plus the blending of vintage design nods with current stylings. The white space is powerful, beautiful and interesting component of each spread, which is hard to do. The type and restrained color palette work hard to be meaningful an are applied purposefully without flash, and that full justification is no joke.” – Kelly Stevens, Seven Creative, Austin TX

2012, Chris Klee, Scouts of America. Branding and Campaign. Professor Jeremy Shellhorn “I am a sucker for well-thought-out and crafted "brand design system" and this student work was particularly impressive. Starting with the research and identification of the challenge, then the big "brand idea", all the way to the creative application and development of not only a new logo – but a complete system of brand cues – including voice, imagery, colors, patterns and an aggressive set of applications that even included an app! This showed a real understanding of the process and a rich approach to developing tools to communicate the big idea to the desired audiences. Well done." – AIGA A7 Judge: Connie Birdsall, Lippencott, NYC

2013, Jessica Marak, Caitlin Workman, Maggie Hirschi, Danielle Aldrich, Erin Zingré. Kiosk 26. Publication Design. “Being part of a large collaborative effort isn't easy. Having been on this type of team many times, I am hyper-aware of the challenges that come with it. Compromise and trust are two tests designers are rarely taught while in school, yet I believe collaboration can make for some of the greatest efforts...particularly when guards are down and everyone is there to achieve the best possible product. It's hard to know what the Kiosk team's process was like which speaks to the cohesiveness and beauty they achieved in the finished product. There is a nice balance from page to page and from front to back. The type choices, textures and visual hierarchy help to weave each piece into a unified whole. You can see each designer's thumbprints throughout, but nowhere are they expressed so loudly that they interfere with the overall chemistry. An impressive feat for any group effort, but especially admirable for a student endeavor. Congrats." – Dawn Hancock, Firebelly Design, Chicago

2013, Sally Carmichael. Porter App. "Beautifully designed and thoughtfully implemented, this travel journal app is everything Fodor's should be. I am especially fond of the integration of the photos, the bucket list feature is a nice touch. The use of so much black is a bit serous for such an emotional app, but it is hard to argue with its simplicity and elegance." – Joe Stitzlien, Google

2011, Jordan Jacobson. International Student Card. Branding and Campaign. Professor Jeremy Shellhorn. “My favorite moment of this piece is the letterhead and envelope, and here's why: It's easy to let all the other energy and color take everything over. Keeling the letterhead sensible and appropriate indicates an understanding of what will actually work. Let the color and wildness infect the posters and shirts and all that. But don't let it cloud things up, I just really appreciated the range of the system, from the simpler moments up to the louder posters. Nice type and good writing, and a positive reference to multicultural color. With student work like this, Kansas City's professional ranks should be shivering in their boots! Watch Out!" – AIGA A7 Judge: Aaron Draplin, Draplin Design Co. Portland

TDK Annual Awards. The Design Kids Competition
TDK invited 9 industry leaders across Australia, New Zealand, USA, and Canada to judge the work. The judges were told to pretend they were hiring for a junior role and to pick 3 people they would get in for an interview based on all the applications (we received over 600 of them!).

2016, Devon McGowan, recognized as one of the best student designers, featured on the TDK website and awarded a summer internship in Australia. Professors Andrea Herstowski, Jeremy Shellhorn, Tim Hossler, Patrick Dooley
2016, Lucas Nelson. Professors Andrea Herstowski, Jeremy Shellhorn. Lecturer Tad Carpenter judges choice “While I do greatly enjoy each project in their individual state, what surprised me by Lucas’s work was just how wide of a variety of styles and types of work he was presenting. I know when we look for new designers, stylistic range is one of the most important aspects we seek out. The only thing missing from the bunch was something digital.” Dawn Hancock, Firebelly, Chicago IL.

2016, Triana Thompson. Professors Andrea Herstowski, Jeremy Shellhorn. Lecturer Tad Carpenter judges choice “Of all the portfolios I saw, Triana’s was the one where I thought: this is someone whose ready to be given a desk at a design firm and start knocking out great ideas and executions. The KU Design Week project has a great vibrancy and strength that’s hard to achieve and the flour tortilla packaging is the ultimate artisanal product in the vellum packaging and thread-sewn closing… it’s just so nice and over the top in a good way.” Armin Vit, Brand New, Austin TX

Portfolio Night KC
Portfolio Night happens all on the same night in 24 cities around the world. It is a speed dating of sorts. Students sit one on one with the areas professionals. At the end of the evening one “Portfolio Night All-Star” is selected. The “All-Star” from each city goes to NY for a week and as a team work on a national pitch.

2015: Jamal Gamby, named the KC All-Star
2015: Josie Miller, named the Austin All-Star (traveled to Austin to attend and won)
2014: Sydney Goldstein, named the KC All-Star. Her NY team won the pitch for Puma.
2013: Mars Denton, named the KC All-Star (first year of the event in KC)

SEGD, Global Design Honor Award, (2016)
Society for Experiential Graphic Designs, Seattle, Washington, USA, KU Design Week is an annual series of events that aims to promote interdisciplinary design thinking to KU students, the Lawrence community and beyond. Each year is given a unique theme that helps guide the schedule of events and the visual identity produced.

FLUX Design Competition, AIGA Blue Ridge
AIGA Blue Ridge’s annual Flux Student Design Competition. Flux is a nationwide competition that recognizes outstanding design work produced by students in the categories of identity, publication, poster, packaging, and web/interactive design. AIGA Blue Ridge is the professional design organization for western Maryland, West Virginia, southern Pennsylvania, and northern Virginia.

Graphic Design USA, Packaging Awards
American Package Awards from Graphic Design USA. For more than 50 years GDUSA has been spotlighting areas of excellence and opportunity for creative professionals. The Package Awards Competition celebrates well-designed graphics and the power of design to advance brands and forge an emotional connection with a buyer at the moment of truth.

National Student Show, Dallas Texas
Dallas Society of Visual Communication. University of Kansas was awarded Best School. Students take home several Best of Categories, including Best Portfolios in the Senior, Junior and Sophomore categories. The competition is competitive and national with over 1,500 entries. Juried by nationally recognized design professionals.